Prime Factorization of 120

To find the prime factorization of 120, we need to express it as a product of prime numbers.

We do this by repeatedly dividing by the smallest prime that divides evenly, starting with 2.

A prime number is only divisible by 1 and itself (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, ...).

Since 120 is even, we start by dividing by 2. We can divide by 2 3 times:

After dividing by 2, we have 15 remaining.

3 is a prime number that divides our current value. We can divide by 3 once:

After dividing by 3, we have 5 remaining.

We are left with 5, which is greater than 1.

5 cannot be divided by any prime smaller than its square root.

Therefore, 5 is itself a prime number and is our final factor.

Now we combine all the prime factors we found:

Expanded form: 120 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 5

Exponential form: 120 = 2^3 × 3 × 5

We can verify: 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 5 = 120 ✓